page_title: Wheeler & Wilson
section_title: Sewing machine innovations
hierarchical_section_title: Wheeler & Wilson / Sewing machine innovations
caption_attribution_description: English: The Wilson machine of November 12, 1850. Earliest model filed in Patent Office.
context_page_description: Wheeler & Wilson was an American company which produced sewing machines. The company was started as a partnership between Allen B. Wilson and Nathaniel Wheeler after Wheeler agreed to help Wilson mass-produce a sewing machine he designed. The two launched their enterprise in the early 1850s, and quickly gained widespread acclamation for their machines' designs. Both Wheeler and Wilson died in the late 19th century, resulting in the company's sale to the Singer Corporation. Shortly after, the Singer Corporation phased out Wheeler & Wilson's designs. The company sold a total of nearly 2,000,000 sewing machines during its existence.
context_section_description: Allen B. Wilson filed two important patents for Wheeler & Wilson's sewing machines: the rotating hook and the four-motion feed. His first machine formed a lock stitch by means of a curved needle on a vibrating arm above the cloth plate, and a reciprocating two-pointed shuttle traveling in a curved race below the plate. The feed motion was obtained by the two metal bars which are seen intersecting above the shuttle race. The lower bar, called the feed bar, had teeth on its upper face, and by means of a transverse sliding motion it moved the cloth, which was placed between the two bars, the desired distance, as each stitch was made.
caption: Wilson sewing machine earliest model filed in Patent Office November 12, 1850
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